THE ARRIVALWhen Starfleet's Task Force 12 re-appeared suddenly in a strange area of space, they knew they were in serious trouble. Commanded by Commodore Jose Medina, this small group of vessels found themselves located deep in uncharted space. Computers on board the ships instantly recognized the giant star Deneb, located just 88 light years away! If that were true, Task Force 12 had been thrown from Earth orbit to this location, more than 3,000 light years! With only a handful of ships under his command, Medina began to scout the region of space. His ships were the following classes:

Within a standard month Task Force 12 had discovered a
half dozen empty M-class planets, and two new alien races (the Melfans
and the Tralthans). Now, Commodore Medina had a decision to make: should
they try to make it back to the Federation (it would take something
like 5-10 years at high-warp speeds to do so), or should they find some
nice M-class planet and settle down? Discussion raged within the task
group as well; many wanted to stay and explore the region (including all
seven ship captains). It was also pointed out that their force wasn't
in any danger: TF12 was heavily armed with battleships and
military-grade escorts, all with updated weaponry and defenses from the
Dominion War. Others wanted to go home, but when the titanic
"Planet-Maker" machine was discovered and a nearby world that was an
exact Earth-copy, the discussions quickly ended. TF12 decided to stay:
no Starfleet personnel could pass up such intellectual and technological
treasures.

Renaming themselves Starfleet/Deneb and re-tasking themselves to explore the area in the Federations name, they began their
new mission.

Many new alien races had been found in and around
the star Deneb. Some were primitive (like the Hudlar and the
Chalder) and a few were advanced as the Federation (like the
Orgilians and Kelgians) but it was the discovery of the Ian Worlds which
radically changed Starfleet/Deneb's mission even further.

Commodore
Medina decided to settle a nearby empty M-class planet and named it
Akwaterra. In addition, a medium sized starbase would be built,
utilizing the fantastic robot assemblers recently purchased from the
Ians.

As time went on, trade alliances began to grow rapidly between what was now being called the Second
Federation and the nearby alien worlds. None of these aliens had
extensive off-world colonies nor did it seem likely that they would
anytime soon; most were insular, low-tech, or in the case of the Ians, "retiring". The first major trade agreement signed was with the
methane-breathing Illensans, and then their low-tech allies the huge
aquatic Chalder and then the elephant-sized Hudlar. At that time, these aliens
were deep in a cold war with a nearby hostile race (the Dewan'n, a
slave empire of several dozen worlds).

Additional trade treaties with inked with other private trade organizations, alien worlds, and scientific groups in the region.

Eventually, heavy multi-lateral trade between Second Federation and
the Ian Worlds grew and grew. In 2388 AD the Melfans and Tralthans
joined the newly-formed Federation. In fact, nearly all of Second
Federations trading partners would all join this organization within 10
years, just in time for the original Federation to discover them using
transwarp starships (in 2394 AD).

The mirror-Earth world, called
Bradley's World, was a special case. The inhabitants were clearly human,
and high-tech as well, and were a globally cooperative society with
many nations that were open minded and tolerant. First contact was made
and went well, and this world quickly joined Second Federation, adding a large supply of humans to the newly formed Starfleet/Deneb.

As
Starfleet/Deneb continued exploring the stars around Deneb, they
discovered many empty worlds and a few hostile races. The most
aggressive were the nearby Dewan'n Slaver Empire, the extensive Primisaurr Empire, and the dysfunctional Howlers, but none
had military weaponry equal to Starfleet/Deneb ships so they kept their
distance from the newly forming Second Federation.

In addition,
very dangerous advanced technology (like Preserver/Originator tech) was strewn
everywhere around Deneb. From the Planet-Maker to the Gateways to the
"Needle", a two million kilometer long space station located in the
nearby Algor Stromgren System, these technofossils could be highly
dangerous (as Starfleet/Deneb learned by losing several away teams while
exploring these immense constructs). Eventually, Second Federation
scientists, with the help of the Ians, finally discovered the purpose of
the Planet-Maker (and how to operate it), astounding all.

Finally,
the same year the UFP stumbled upon the Second Federation, another
duplicate Earth was discovered nearly 80 light years from Akwaterra, but
it seemed only half-finished. This planet, (named Uelterra) had oceans,
landmasses, and atmosphere present, but no high level plants or animals, just a extremely tenacious lichen that prevents mass erosion
of the planetary surface soil. A Starfleet/Deneb science station was put
in orbit to study this world and it was officially claimed by the
Second Federation six months later.

When Starfleet transwarp
vessels arrived, Second Federation had 9 alien members and 16 colony and
mining worlds located around the star Deneb, a good start for some lost
Starfleet vessels.

THE STARBASEOnce they decided to stay in the region, Starfleet/Deneb immediately set up a new colony on the surface of Akwaterra and also began building a starbase in orbit for defense, construction, and trade. Several designs were considered (see below) but in the end a station design based on Deep Space 2 was selected and work was begun. Later, once advanced Ian spider-worker bots were purchased the starbase was finished in record time (a mere 18 months). Additional empty M-class worlds were also discovered, and also some unique alien races as well.

STARBASE DENEBDeep Space 2 was an enormous facility that originally took the United Federation of Planets nearly 5 years to complete, but with thousands of automated spider-bots the new facility (named Starbase Deneb) was finished in record time. Basic armaments for this massive starbase include multi-dimensional phasers, eight dozen high-capacity photon torpedo launchers, over 100 automated combat orbs (move independantly), 14 phaser-cannon emplacements, and a dozen "dark matter" missile device launchers. Defenses for the station include advanced poly-morphic shields, transporter armor arrays (compressed matter), 100 defense drones, an extensive ECM array and specialized battle bridge for its operation, and the Quad-Eye Sensor Array (50LY range).

NEW CONSTRUCTIONWhen Starbase Deneb was finished, a dozen new mission-specific starships were immediately laid down. The immense station could easily hold all of Task Force 12 and then some, so huge spaces inside the facility were dedicated to ship construction and the first vessels built were the Okinawa-class advanced destroyers. Four ships in this class were initially built, having been on Starfleet's drawing boards for some time. With the recent Dominion War on everyone's mind, these ships were designed for heavy combat but they could also cover the role of explorer-scout since they also were constructed with a wide-array of sensors and shuttlebay with an extensive array of small craft (including planetary probes and shuttles). Personnel requirements for this class was a mere 120 crew, which was vital since the personnel of TF12 could only stretch so far. In the same year, a dozen small freighters were designed and built by Starfleet personnel to maintain trade with their new alien allies.

Several new starships were also begun in orbit, including two Zoe-class hospital ships, 4 Nova-class scouts, and 3 Rhine-class fleet tenders. Two additional Defiant-class escorts would be later built along with 4 Quantum-class scouts (with transwarp drive), and another Prometheus-class attack cruiser. To round out Starfleet/Federation two dozen small Legacy-class cruiser/scouts were built before the UFP discovered the Second Federation.

Finally, due to the small numbers of Starfleet personnel intially available at Deneb it was decided to use a larger number of runabouts, rather than starships, to do much of the exploring and other missions needed. With that in mind, over 100 Arrow-class runabouts and additional modified Ganges-class runabouts were constructed and used by Starfleet/Deneb personnel. (see next page for more details)